ftl 


f.f'T^ 


Issued  December  1  i.   1909. 


U.S.  DEPARTMENT  OF   AGRICULTURE, 

BUREAU  OF  PLANT  [NDUSTKY     Circular  No    12 

B.   I .  GA1  hief  oi  Bureau. 


OlilOIN  OF  THK  HINDI  cotton. 


().    K.  COOK. 


WASMIHGTON  :  GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE  :  1*09 


DEPOSITC 


I  (Mr.  412 1 

2 


KUREAU   OF  PLANT   INDUSTRY. 


Chief  of  Bureau,  Beverly  T.  Galloway 
Assistant  Chief  of  Bureau,  Albert  F.  Woods. 
Editor,  J.  E.  Rockwell. 
Chief  Clerk,  James  K.  Jones. 


I :     I  •     l 


ORIGIN  OF  Till;  HINDI  COTTON. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Hindi  is  the  name  applied  in  Egypt  to  an  undesirable  type  of  cot- 
ton with  a  short,  weak  fiber,  that  injure-  the  high-grade  Egyptian 
varieties  by  infesting  them  with  hybrids.  The  skill  and  cheapness 
of  the  native  Egyptian  labor  enable  the  exporters  to  have  the  cotton 
sorted  by  hand  in  their  baling  establishments,  so  that  a  high  reputa- 
tion for  uniformity  has  been  secured  in  spite  of  the  Hindi  admixture. 

The  introduction  of  the  Egyptian  cotton  into  the  United  States 
brings  also  the  problem  of  the  Hindi  cotton,  but  without  the  resource 
of  cheap  labor  which  enables  the  difficulty  to  be  surmounted  in  Egypt. 
The  practicability  of  establishing  a  commercial  culture  of  the  Egyp- 
tian cotton  in  the  United  States  depends  largely  upon  the  elimination 
of  the  Hindi  contamination  and  other  forms  of  diversity,  so  that  the 
fiber  may  be  produced  in  a  satisfactory  condition  of  uniformity.  The 
Hindi  cotton  problem  mighl  be  compared  to  thai  of  the  red  rice  that 
mixes  with  the  white  and  depreciates  the  value  of  the  crop.  In  the 
case  of  the  cotton  there  is  a  better  prospect  that  adequate  knowledge 
of  the  vegetative  characters  may  enable  the  undesirable  plant-  to  he 
removed  from  the  fields  without  too  seriously  increasing  the  cost  of 
production. 

DIAGNOSTIC  CHARACTERS  OF  THE  HINDI  COTTON. 

The  Hindi  cotton  usually  appear-  more  vigorous  and  robust  than 
the  adjacent  Egyptian  plant-  by  reason  of  the  larger  number  of  vege- 
tative branches  developed  from  the  lower  node-  of  the  central  -talk. 
The  vegetative  branches  also  take  a  more  nearly  uprighl  position, 
rendering  the  plants  more  compact  and  bushj  in  their  general  shape, 
a-  well  a-  more  densely  leafy.  The  leaves  are  much  thinner  in  tex- 
ture than  those  of  the  Egyptian  cotton  and  of  a  lighter  and  more  yel- 
lowish green.  The  difference  is  particularly  striking  in  Arizona, 
w  here  the  Eg}  ptian  cotton  usually  i-  id'  a  very  dark  grayish  or  bluish 
green.  The  lateral  lobes  appear  very  shorl  and  broad  in  comparison 
with  the  Egyptian  cotton,  or  even  with  many  of  our  Upland  varie- 

[Clr.  42]  3 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    HINDI    COTTON. 


ties.  The  lateral  angles  of  the  leaf  are  produced  so  little  that  the 
outer  margin  is  left  nearly  straight  if  the  middle  lobe  is  cut  off.  (See 
fig.  1  and  compare  with  fig.  2.)  The  pulvinus  at  the  base  of  the 
leaf  blade  is  red,  as  well  as  the  adjacent  part  of  the  petiole,  and  es- 
pecially the  somewhat  swollen  upper  side  of  the  end  of  the  petiole, 
w  hich  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  the  pulvinus.  The  involucral 
bracts  are  nearly  orbicular,  very  deeply  cordate  at  base  and  mar- 
gined with  numerous  long  teeth.     The  calyx  has  long-pointed  trian- 


Fig.  1. — Leaf  of  Jannoviteh  Egyptian  cotton   (natural  size). 

gular  lobes.  The  petals  are  creamy  white  and  the  petal  spot  faint 
or  entirely  lacking.  The  small  conic  bolls  have  three,  four,  or 
five  carpels  or  locks,  and  are  of  a  pale-green  color,  with  few  and 
deeply  buried  oil  glands.  The  lint  is  white  and  of  very  inferior 
quality.  The  seeds  are  longer  and  more  angular  than  in  the  Egyp- 
tian cotton,  and  the  surface  is  usually  completely  naked  after  the 
lint  is  removed.  In  rare  cases  there  may  be  fuzz  at  the  ends  of  the 
Mills,  as  in  the  Egyptian  cotton,  or  even  a  larger  amount. 
[Cir.  -l-j 


ORIGIN    OF     CHE    HIND]    CO!  ln\. 

SUPPOSED    RELATION    OF    HINDI    COTTON    TO    UNITED    STATES 
UPLAND  VARIETIES. 

Tl"'  nature  and  origin  of  the  Hindi  cotton  appear  to  have  been  the 

subject  of  as  i ■!.  popular  speculation  in   Egypt  as  the  red  rice  in 

the  United  States.  The  word  "  Hindi  "  is  the  Arabic  equivalent  of 
'""'  word  "  fndian."  Seme  writers  have  taken  this  to  mean  that  the 
cotton  came   from   Hindustan,  while  others  consider  that   the  nam.' 


1  !  Hindi  cotton  I  natural  size). 

Hindi  might  be  applied  to  any  foreign  plant  and  has  no  particular 
significance  as  an  indication  of  origin.  A  third  opinion  is  that  this 
cotton  is  either  a  native  Egyptian  variety  or  one  that  was  cultivated 
m  the  country  before  the  present  commercial  type.  The  reason  given 
for  I,M~  idea  is  that  this  cotton  is  frequently  found  in  a  wild  or  spon- 
taneous condition  in  uncultivated  or  abandoned  land-. 

[Cii 


b  ORIGIN    OF    THE    HINDI    COTTON. 

The  suggestions  of  scientific  students  of  the  Hindi  cotton  arc 
hardly  more  consistent.  Sir  George  Watt's  monograph  of  cotton 
connects  the  Hindi  plant  with  no  less  than  three  species  supposed  to 
be  native  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  but  he  refers  it  most  directly 
to  Gossypium  punctatum,  and  states  that  this  species  grows  wild  in 
the  United  State-.  Some  of  our  cult  hated  Upland  cottons,  such  as 
the  King  variety,  are  reckoned  as  varieties  or  hybrids  of  Gossypium 
punctatum,  and  the  Moqui  cotton  of  the  Arizona  Indians  is  definitely 
referred  to  this  species." 

In  reality  there  is  no  wild  cotton  in  any  of  the  cotton-growing  re- 
gions of  the  United  States.  In  Texas  and  other  Gulf  States  warm 
winters  often  allow  the  roots  to  survive  and  send  up  new  shoots  in 
the  spring,  but  in  cold  years  all  the  cotton  is  killed  throughout  the 
cotton  belt.  The  only  indigenous  wild  type  of  cotton  known  in  the 
United  States  is  that  found  in  the  extreme  southern  part  of  Florida 
and  on  the  Florida  Keys,  unless  we  take  into  account  the  varieties 
cultivated  by  the  Indians  of  Arizona,  and  these  varieties  have  never* 
been  planted  in  other  part-  of  the  United  State-  except  in  very  re- 
cent experiments. 

Watt  dwells  in  particular  upon  the  claim  that  the  Hindi  cotton  re- 
sembles Moqui  cotton  from  Arizona;  but  when  the  living  plants  are 
compared,  the  resemblance  between  the  Moqui  and  Hindi  cottons  ap- 
pears no  greater  than  that  between  the  Hindi  and  our  Upland  va- 
rieties. The  Hindi  cotton  finds  a  much  closer  alliance  with  other 
types  of  cotton  from  southern  Mexico  and  Central  America.  These 
types  belong  to  the  general  Upland  series,  but  they  have  not  been 
known  in  the  United  States  until  very  recently  and  have  been  planted 
thus  far  only  in  a  few  localities  and  only  on  an  experimental  basis. 

HINDI   COTTON  RELATED   TO   MEXICAN  VARIETIES. 

The  vegetative  characters  of  the  Hindi  cotton  show  the  closesl 
approximation  to  those  of  some  of  the  Mexican  varieties  from  the 
State  of  Chiapas  and  in  particular  to  a  type  obtained  by  Mr.  (i.  N. 
Collins  in  1906  at  the  town  of  Acala.  There  are  the  same  light,  yel- 
lowish green,  broad,  short-lobed,  smooth,  naked  Leaves  and  the,  same 
strongly  zigzag  fruiting  branches  which  frequently  branch  again 
from  the  axillary  hud-.  A-  in  the  Hindi  cotton,  the  bolls  are  pale 
green,  the  oil  glands  that  show  a-  black  dots  on  the  bolls  of  Egyptian 
cotton  being  buried  deeply  in  the  green  tissues.  The  involucral  bracts 
are  rounded  ami  very  deeply  cordate  at  base,  as  in  the  Hindi  cotton, 
and  the  margins  have  longer  and  coarser  teeth,  carried  down  nearer 

"Watt,  si.  George.     The  Wild  and  Cultivated  Cotton  Plants  <>f  the  World, 

i... n, in,,,  mil?.  ],.  181. 

[Cir.   42] 


ORIGIN    OF    CHE    HINDI    COTTON.  7 

to  the  base  than  in  our  Upland  cottons.    The  calyx  of  the  Hindi  col 
ton  has  large  triangular  lobes,  and  these  are  often  produced  into  a 

long,  -lender  tip,  as  in  many  Mexican  and  Central  American  van 
including  thai   from  Acala. 

Many  of  the  plants  of  the  Acala  cotton  growing  ai  San  Antonio 
in  August,  L909,  were  remarkably  close  counterparts  of  some  of  the 
Hindi  plants  of  the  Jannovitch  row  in  the  same  Held.  The  chief 
difference  lies  in  the  greater  fertility  of  the  Mexican  cottons,  some 
of  which  appear  worthy  of  cultivation  in  the  United  States,  since 
they  have  lamer  bolls  and  better  lint  than  our  United  States  Upland 
varieties.  The  Hindi  cotton  is  markedly  infertile  or  fruits  very  late, 
but  this  fact  may  be  connected  with  its  status  as  a  reversion.  Muta- 
tive variations,  like  hybrids,  arc  often  more  or  less  completely  sterile. 

The  Egypt  ian  and  the  I  Ipland  type-  both  have  definitely  specialized 
fruiting  branches,  bul  the  fruiting  branches  of  the  Hindi  cotton 
-how  a  much  greater  tendency  to  keep  an  ascending  position  and  con 
tinue  their  vegetative  growth,  the  young  flower  buds  being  often 
aborted.  The  same  tendency  is  often  seen  in  aberrant  plants  of 
Egyptian  cotton,  including  many  that  show  Hindi  characteristics. 
The  fruiting  branches  of  the  Hindi  hybrids  are  usually  few  and  short 
and  some  of  the  Hindi  like  plants  are  completely  sterile,  as  already 
stated.  This  is  in  notable  contrast  with  the  behavior  of  the  hybrids 
between  the  Egyptian  and  Upland  cotton,  which  have  the  fruiting 
branches  better  developed  than  in  the  pure  Egyptian  -locks. 

COTTON  INDIGENOUS  IN  AMERICA. 

The  resemblance  between  the  Mexican  and  the  Hindi  cotton  from 
Egypt  may  no1  appeal-  to  be  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  American  origin 
of  the  Hindi  cotton.  It  might  be  thought  more  likely  that  cotton 
had  been  carried  from  Egypt  to  Mexico  than  from  Mexico  to  Egypt. 
Account  must  be  taken  of  the  further  fact  that  Mexican  and  Central 
American  varieties  are  members  of  a  large  natural  group.  The 
numerous  local  types  are  appreciably  different  and  yet  they  have  so 
many  characters  in  common  thai  the  whole  group  must  be  looked 
upon  as  an  indigenous  product  instead  of  a  recent  importation.  The 
long,  narrowly  attenuate  lobes  thai  render  the  Hindi  calyx  SO  widely 
different  from  the  Egyptian  is  a  feature  commonly  accentuated  in 
many  of  the  Mexican  and  Central  American  type-,  though  very 
rarely  found  in  our  United  States  Upland  varieties. 

How  the  Hindi  cotton  was  introduced  into  Egypt  i-  likely  to  remain 
a  matter  of  conjecture,  for  the  history  of  the  Egyptian  cotton  itself 
is  altogether  obscure.  That  it  came  to  Egypt  from  India  is  not  to  be 
considered  impossible,  for  in   India,  as  in  Egypt,  large  numbers  of 

[Cir.  42] 


8  ORIGIN    OF    THE    HINDI    COTTON. 

varieties  have  been  imported  at  different  times  for  experimental  pur- 
poses. Some  American  cottons  appear  to  have  been  cultivated  in 
India  for  a  long  time,  perhaps  dating  back  to  early  Portuguese  intro- 
ductions from  Brazil.  All  that  can  be  said  at  present  is  that  none 
of  the  cottons  from  India  that  have  been  grown  in  the  United  States 
show  any  close  approximation  to  the  Hindi  cotton. 

The  idea  of  the  Hindi  cotton  as  a  wild  plant  in  Egypt  may  have 
been  strengthened,  if  not  suggested  in  the  first  place,  by  the  fact  that 
Egyptian  cotton  stunted  by  dry  soil  or  other  unfavorable  conditions 
shows  a  stronger  resemblance  to  the  Hindi.  The  first  leaves  of  the 
Egyptian  cotton  have  nearly  the  same  shape  and  color  as  the  adult 
leaves  of  the  Hindi,  and  stunted  plants  continue  to  produce  the  juvenile 
form  of  leaves.  The  proportions  of  adult  Hindi  plants  also  appear 
to  be  influenced  by  the  external  conditions  in  different  plantings  of  the 
same  stock  of  seeds.  It  does  not  seem  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
Egyptian  cotton  escaped  from  cultivation  might  go  over  more  and 
more  to  the  Hindi  type.  A  further  reason  for  considering  the  Hindi 
cotton  as  a  collateral  relative  of  the  Egyptian,  if  not  a  truly  ancestral 
form,  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  many  hybrids  between  the 
Egyptian  cotton  and  United  States  Upland  varieties  show  Hindi 
characteristics  rather  than  those  of  the  parental  types. 

The  fact  that  the  affinities  of  the  Hindi  cotton  have  been  so  long 
misjudged  would  tend  to  show  that  Indian  and  Egyptian  students  of 
cotton  have  not  been  familiar  with  the  Mexican  and  Central  Ameri- 
can types.  It  is  possible'  that  the  Hindi  contamination  already 
existed  in  the  Egyptian  cotton  when  it  was  introduced  into  Egypt 
and  that  its  existence  in  that  country  resulted  from  reversion  rather 
than  from  local  contamination.  The  Sea  Island  cotton  of  the  United 
States,  that  has  never  been  in  Egypt,  also  shows  sudden  variations, 
the  so-called  "  male  stalks  "  or  "  bull  cotton, "  commonly  reckoned  as 
hybrids,  but  having  a  general  similarity  to  the  Hindi  reversions  of 
the  Egyptian  cotton  and  the  same  tendency  to  sterility  and  inferior 
fiber.0 

RELATIONSHIPS   OF   EGYPTIAN   COTTON. 

There  are  also  many  indigenous  varieties  of  the  general  Sea  Island 
type  of  cotton  in  the  American  Tropics,  and  often  in  the  same  locali- 
ties with  indigenous  Upland  varieties,  so  that  opportunities  for 
crosses  may  have  existed  through  long  periods  of  time.  Some  of  the 
Mexican  and  Central  American  varieties  of  the  Upland  series  share 
the  long-pointed  bolls  and  some  of  the  other  characters  of  the  Sea 

"Orton,  W.  A.     Sea  Island  Cotton:   Its  Culture.   Improvement,  and  Diseases. 
Farmers'  Bulletin  302,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  1907,  p.  20. 
[Cir.  42] 


ORIGIN    OF   THE    HINDI    COTTON.  9 

[sland  series,  and  i(  is  nol  impossible  thai  a  complete  series  of  inter- 
mediate types  maj  yel  be  discovered  in  tropical  America. 

W : 1 1 1 "  —  recenl  assignment  of  the  Egyptian  cotton  to  another  botan 
ical  species  (G<  wypium  /><  ruvianum  )  instead  of  to  the  Sea  [sland  spe- 
cies i  <•'.  barbad(  ns<  i  should  not  be  allowed  to  confuse  the  issue,  for  the 
two  types  'I"  not  appear  to  have  any  essential  differences  to  justify 
such  a  separation.  The  range  of  diversity  shown  by  the  Egyptian 
col  ion-  during  the  period  of  acclimatization  leaves  no  doubt  that  thej 
are  closely  allied  to  the  Sea  [sland  cotton.  There  are  individual 
Egyptian  plant-,  with  lighter  color  and  narrower  lobes  than  usual, 
that  simulate  the  Sea  [sland  cotton  very  closely,  without  any  serious 
departure  from  the  usual  Egyptian  characteristics.  The  most  pro- 
nounced differences  that  sometimes  appeal'  to  separate  the  two  types 
are  the  ilar!, ei-  green  color  of  the  Egyptian  foliage  and  the  smaller 
tendency  of  the  Egyptian  cotton  to  produce  fertile  branches  on  the 
lower  pari  of  the  plant.  Both  these  characters  are  known  to  be  easily 
influenced  by  external  condition-  and  individual  selection,  as  in  the 
Upland  t  \  pes  of  cotton. 

A  planting  of  Sea  [sland  cotton  at  Falfurrias,  Tex.,  in  the  season 
of  1909  showed  several  plants  strikingly  similar  to  Egyptian  cotton. 
much  taller  and  less  fertile  than  their  neighbors,  and  with  the  coarser, 
darker  foliage  and  the  relatively  short  buff  lint  of  the  Egyptian — ap- 
parently complete  reversions  from  the  Sea  Island  to  the  Egyptian 
type.  Indeed,  the  approximation  was  in  this  instance  so  close  as  to 
call  for  repetition-  of  the  experiment  to  exclude  every  possibility 
of  admixture  of  seed.  The  same  stock  of  Sea  Island  seed  handled 
in  the  same  way  at  New  Braunfels,  Tex.,  produced  none  of  the  Egyp- 
tian-like plant-,  but  niaii\  similar  cases  have  occurred  where  diversi- 
ties have  appeared  in  some  places  and  not  in  others.  Darker  lint 
accompanies  darker  foliage  among  the  Egyptian  plant-  as  well  as 
among  the  Sea  [sland.  The  two  series  undoubtedly  overlap,  whether 
they  are  capable  of  -how  Lag  the  same  extremes  or  not. 

The  question  of  the  botanical  name  that  should  he  applied  to  the 
Hindi  cotton  may  well  he  left  open  until  more  definite  knowledge  is 
available  regarding  the  botanical  identity  of  other  Mexican  types. 
The  Hindi  cotton  may  prove  to  he  close  to  the  original  of  Todaro's 
C  ypium  mexicanum,  hut  may  also  be  distinct,  if  Watt  i-  correct 
in  referring  our  big-boll  Upland  varieties  to  that  specie-.  Todaro's 
6  ypium  microcarpum  is  another  Mexican  species  to  he  considered 
in  the  identification  of  the  Hindi  cotton,  tor  some  of  the  Mexican 
relatives  of  the  Hindi  cotton  show  narrowdeaved  form-  that  may 
have  furnished  the  originals  of  Todaro's  species,  though  they  have 
no  apparent  relation  to  some  of  the  varied  types  that  W ;i 1 1  assembles 
under  t  hi-  name. 

[Clr.  A-i\ 


10  ORIGIN    OF    THE    HINDI    COTTON. 

POSSIBILITIES  OF  UPLAND  ADMIXTURE  IN  EGYPT. 

That  some  of  the  so-called  "  Hindi  contamination  "  in  Egypt  may 
be  due  to  hybridization  with  true  United  States  Upland  cottons  is 
not  to  be  denied,  for  it  is  probable  that  many  experimental  plantings 
of  Upland  cotton  have  been  made  in  Egypt,  affording  opportunities 
for  crossing  to  take  place.  Recent  reports  indicate  that  some  of  the 
Egyptian  planters  are  adopting  the  Upland  cotton  as  a  regular  crop, 
owing  to  a  serious  decline  in  the  }deld  of  the  Egyptian  cotton  in  l  he 
last  few  years.  Indications  of  a  previous  contamination  with  Upland 
cotton  appear  in  the  Ashmuni  variety  of  Egyptian  cotton  as  grown 
at  Yuma  in  1909  from  newly  imported  seed.  The  Ashmuni  field 
showed  numerous  Hindi  plants  different  from  those  that  appeared  in 
other  varieties  in  being  distinctly  hairy.  In  addition  to  the  hairy 
Hindi  plants  there  were  several  small  hairy  individuals  that  lacked 
other  distinctive  Hindi  characters,  such  as  the  light-colored,  short- 
lobed  leaves,  and  approached  in  these  respects  some  of  the  forms  of 
Upland  cotton.  The  hairy  Hindi  plants  might  also  be  taken  to  indi- 
cate Upland  hybridization,  in  view  of  the  strong  tendency  of  the 
Hindi  characters  to  come  to  expression  in  Egyptian-Upland  hybrids. 
These  hybrid  reversions  sometimes  take  on  the  complete  Hindi  form 
and  show  very  few  or  none  of  the  Egyptian  or  Upland  characters. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

Experiments  with  Egyptian  cotton  in  Arizona  show  that  the  so- 
called  "  Hindi  "  variations  which  appear  among  plants  grown  from 
seed  imported  from  Egypt  are  one  of  the  principal  factors  of  the 
diversity  that  would  diminish  the  commercial  value  of  the  fiber. 

Comparisons  with  other  types  indicate  that  the  Hindi  cotton  is 
of  American  origin  instead  of  a  result  of  hybridization  with  a 
native  Egyptian  or  other  Old  World  species  of  cotton  as  various 
writers  have  assumed. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Hindi  cotton  does  not  prove  to  be  identical 
with  any  of  our  United  States  Upland  varieties,  as  supposed  by 
Watt.  It  finds  a  much  closer  alliance  with  other  types  of  Upland 
cotton  indigenous  in  Mexico  and  Central  America. 

As  the  Egyptian  and  other  Sea  Island  types  also  appear  to  have 
originated  in  tropical  America,  it  becomes  possible  to  view  the  Hindi 
variants  as  examples  of  reversion  to  remote  ancestral  characters 
rather  than  as  results  of  recent  hybridization.  The  similarity  of  the 
Hindi  foliage  to  that  of  young  plants  of  Egyptian  cotton  accords 
with  this  interpretation. 

[Cir.  42] 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    HINDI    COTTON.  11 

Although  reversion  to  Hindi  characters  frequently  occurs  when 
the  Egyptian  cotton  is  hybridized  with  United  State-  Upland  vari- 
eties there  are  also  many  Upland  characters  thai  seldom  or  never 
appear  among  the  Hindi  reversions  and  thus  enable  recent  contami- 
nation with   Upland  cotton  to  be  detected. 

Approved  : 

James  Wn  son, 

,  v  of  .  I  iii  icultun  . 

Washington,  D.  ('..  October  19,  H 

Nun.  After  this  circular  was  written,  the  Library  of  the  Department  "f 
Agriculture  acquired  a  sel  of  the  files  of  the  Cairo  Scientific  Journal,  a  recently 
ablished  publication  not  hitherto  accessible  in  Washington.  Two  papers 
touching  upon  the  origin  of  the  Hindi  cotton  and  containing  many  interesting 
historical  fads  appeared  in  this  journal  in  190S,  both  by  scientific  investigators 
resident  in  Egypt.  The  first  paper,  written  by  Mr.  \Y.  Lawrence  Halls  for  the 
July  Dumber,  inclines  to  the  current  idea  thai  the  Hindi  cotton  is  a  native  of 
Egypl  and  adjacent  regions,  though  adducing  no  direct  evidence.  The  second 
paper,  in  the  November  number,  is  by  Mr.  F.  Fletcher,  who  had  previously 
lived  in  India  and  investigated  the  Indian  cottons. 

The  Hindi  cotton  is  said  not  to  be  grown  in  India  at  the  present  day.  but 
Fletcher   states   that    "it    is  cultivated    near    Bagdad    undei    this   same   title   and 

is  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  there  from  India,  as  its  name  suggests." 
No  consideration  is  given  to  the  idea  of  the  Hindi  cotton  as  a  native  of  Egypt, 
Watt's  view  of  its  relations  i"  Gossypium  punctalum  ami  American  Upland 
cottons  being  apparently  accepted.  The  possibility  of  a  Central  African  origin 
of  the  Hindi  cotton  is  noted,  on  the  basis  of  a  Hindi-like  herbarium  specimen 
dating  from  1863  labeled  as  representing  a  cotton  introduced  into  Egypl  from 
Cordofan.  Fletcher  .old-  thai  he  has  "received  many  sample-  of  seed  from 
Central  Africa,  bul  none  of  these  have  given  rise  to  Hindi  plant-." 

still  older  specimens  from  Upper  Egypl  and  Abyssinia,  described  by  early 
authors  under  the  name  frutescens  and  considered  by  Balls  as  possibly  per- 
taining to  Hindi,  are  shown  by  Fletcher  to  be  true  old  World  types,  not  related 
to  the  Hindi  cotton  or  to  the  Egyptian.  Halls  also  refers  to  Gossypium  riti- 
folium    as   a    Central    African   cotton    with    "  free,    naked    seeds."      Fletcher   •' 

not  look  upon  (',.  vitifolium  as  reli 1  to  the  Hindi  cotton,  but  accepts  it  as  one 

of  the  ancestors  of  the  Egyptian,  the  Sea  Island  as  the  other.  Halls  finds  that 
a  varietv  'if  Sea  Island  cotton  has  been  cultivated  at  Kanda.  in  the  Menufiyeh 
district,  for  thirty  years,  which  may  explain  the  tendency  of  the  Egyptian 
cotton  to  vary  in  the  direction  of  the  Sea   Island. 

Fletcher  also  studied  at  Paris  Lamarck's  original  type  of  vitifolium,  sup- 
pi. -ed  to  come  from  Celebes,  though  the  locality  is  doubtful.  lie  conclude- 
that  an  Egyptian  specimen  referred  to  Lamarck's  species  by  Delile  over  a 
century  ago  was  correctly  identified,  and  gives  photographs  of  the  original 
specimens,  which  are  not  altogether  favorable  to  his  conclusions,  it  can  lie 
seen  that  the  involucral  bracts  of  Lamarck's  plant  were  of  distinctly  tut- 
ptian  form,  the  teeth  being  coarse  and  long  and  extending  far  down  toward 
the  base  of  the  bracts,  as  in  the   Hindi  cotton.      Fletcher  also  considers  that    the 

Delile  plant  agrees  with  a  specimen  of  "Jumel"  cotton  sent   from  Egypl   to 
[Clr.  42] 


12  ORIGIN    OF    THE    HINDI    COTTON. 

Todaro  about  I860  with  a  statement  that  it  had  been  introduced  from  Ceylon 
about  forty  years  before. 

Historical  accounts  collected  by  Balls  indicate  thai  the  field  culture  of  long- 
staple  cotton  in  Egypt  was  begun  by  Mohammed  Ali  in  1*21  at  the  instance  of 
Jumel,  a  French  engineer.  The  superior  type  adopted  by  Jumel  was  not  a  new 
introduction,  but  a  perennial  "  tree"  cotton  that  was  being  planted  as  an  orna- 
mental in  gardens  at  Cairo,  and  supposed  to  come  from  India.  Several  direct 
introductions  of  Sea  Island  and  Brazilian  cotton  appear  to  have  been  made 
subsequently,  but  without  displacing  the  variety  that  had  been  popularized  by 
Jumel.  Balls  is  inclined  to  ascribe  the  brownish  color  of  the  Egyptian  cotton 
to  these  Brazilian  introductions,  but  Fletcher  believes  that  Jumel's  cotton  was 
brown,  like  some  of  the  Brazilian  cottons. 

If  the  Egyptian  cotton  came  by  way  of  India  the  name  Hindi  that  is  now 
given  to  inferior  plants  may  be  only  an  echo  of  the  original  introduction  of  the 
Egyptian  cotton  itself.  Any  cotton  brought  from  India  might  be  called  Hindi  at 
first,  and  this  name  would  serve  in  later  years  for  the  residual  stock,  after 
local  varieties  with  special  names  began  to  be  distinguished.  Balls  shows  that 
there  were  numerous  varieties  of  Egyptian  cotton  with  distinctive  names  before 
the  Mit  AAA  type  was  introduced  in  1S82.  After  the  use  of  the  improved  types 
became  general  the  old  name  might  still  be  applied  to  inferior  variations  or 
even  to  accidental  hybrids.  The  origin  of  the  name  appears  to  have  no  bearing 
in  this  case  upon  the  origin  of  the  plant.  Local  varieties  of  cotton  might  have 
been  taken  to  India  from  any  part  of  tropical  America,  though  more  likely  to 
have  come  from  Brazil,  where  the  Portuguese  ships  were  accustomed  to  stop 
on  their  way  arouud  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
[Cir.  42] 

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